Ferdinand Foch Quotes
In war there are none but particular cases; everything has there an individual nature; nothing ever repeats itself. In the first place, the data of a military problem are but seldom certain; they are never final . Everything is in a constant state of change and reshaping.
Foch, Ferdinand. The Principles of War. Translated by Hilaire Belloc, Henry Holt and Company, 1920, p. 10.
Patton distrusted planners although he required his staff to create endless plans for almost every possible contingency. His difficulty with “ planners” was that would change modify or replace a plan the instant conditions on the ground did not follow the assumptions of the plan.
Ferdinand Foch was a French general and military theorist who served as the Supreme Allied Commander during the First World War. An aggressive, even reckless commander at the First Marne, Flanders and Artois campaigns of 1914–1916, Foch became the Allied Commander-in-Chief in late March 1918 in the face of the all-out German spring offensive, which pushed the Allies back using fresh soldiers and new tactics that trenches could not contain. He successfully coordinated the French, British and American efforts into a coherent whole, deftly handling his strategic reserves. He stopped the German offensive and launched a war-winning counterattack. In November 1918, Marshal Foch accepted the German cessation of hostilities and was present at the Armistice of 11 November 1918.
